We are each a ship in a bottle, set upon a shelf to marvel at the miracle of our creation. Each one of us is a master ship builder; crafting first a hull, then adding keel and rudder. We move through life completing our vessel, step-by-step, adding lines to our bowsprit until our rigging will support our masts and allow our sails to be raised.

I know I have simply spent much of my life bailing bucket after bucket of water, just to stay afloat. And now by the grace of letting go, I have surrendered. No longer do I struggle to keep my own ship afloat, for I am aware of unceasing beauty emanating from both within and without of the bottle that is the ecosphere of my own life.​You too have the incredible opportunity to set your own life sailing on unchartered waters. Trust the rigging you have set just right and unfurl your beautiful sails. Forever sunsets await you. Perhaps I will see you at sunset across an incredibly calm sea, as I gaze upon your ship in a bottle.

Brother Paul,
Lots of tension here between the image of "imprisonment" in a bottle and our free will to build ourselves. Now, if you surrender from bailing, how do you keep from sinking? And if you aspire to sail on "uncharted waters," isn't that getting out of the bottle? And is "sunset" the symbol for "crossing over at the end"? You remember in the early 5th Street days how I always was a stickler for logic in the poems? Ha. Now, you do know who the reputed "mayor of realville" is, don't you? Like the other message you forwarded on the realist, something to be considered? Seriously, some of your recent stuff has the feel of an approaching "breakthrough" and leap to a higher level. But, like a snake, that requires shedding old skin. Are you ready for that? Consider deeply, old friend. But if you still have Buddhist leanings, remember change is the only constant.
Be well, and enlightened!
Mark